Afternoon of a Faun

Most recent performance

There are currently no scheduled performances of Afternoon of a Faun.
It was last on stage 26 October—12 November 2015.

The Story

A male dancer is sleeping in a ballet studio. Languidly, he rises and begins to stretch. A girl enters and begins to warm up at the barre. They fall into a trance-like pas de deux – which ends with the boy kissing the girl on the cheek.

Background

Jerome Robbins created his Afternoon of a Faun in 1953, early in his career. He was inspired not only by Debussy’s music, and the choreography of Nijinsky’s scandalous 1912 ballet, but by the dancers in the rehearsal studios around him: a young man stretching in the sun; two young dancers working on a pas de deux, seemingly unaware of its sexual resonances. The resulting ballet has a truth and poignancy characteristic of Robbins’s greatest works, and has become one of his most enduring ballets.

Jean Rosenthal’s scenery and lighting design creates a sun-drenched studio. Walls of translucent silk suggest a dreamlike world. The ‘fourth wall’ becomes a huge mirror – throughout the ballet the protagonists gaze into the audience, obsessed with the image of themselves. An essay on narcissism, an idle dream or a parable of sexual awakening? Robbins’s subtle and ambiguous setting lets us decide for ourselves.

On Wikipedia

Afternoon of a Faun is a ballet made by Jerome Robbins, subsequently ballet master of New York City Ballet, to Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. The premiere took place on 14 May 1953 at City Center of Music and Drama, New York, with scenery and lighting by Jean Rosenthal and costumes by Irene Sharaff. Note: Tanaquil LeClercq's costume was not by Irene Sharaff. It was made for her by her mother, Edith Le Clercq. Robbin's setting differs from the original version by Vaslav Nijinsky by placing the danseur in a ballet studio (a three wall set), lounging on the floor. A ballerina enters and they dance facing the audience as though looking into the mirrored wall of the studio. He kisses his partner on the cheek and she bourrées out of the studio and off-stage. He returns to his initial supine position.